Partners TransAlgae

SLUSwedish University of Agriculture and Science, SLU has 36 departments and units that are organised in four faculties. Research and graduate education stand for 70 per cent of SLU’s annual turnover. Sound basic research is combined with more applied studies to solve concrete problems. The researchers often work interdisciplinary. The department of wildlife, fish, and environmental studies is based in Umeå.

SLU in TransAlgaeSLU is the Lead Partner in TransAlgae and brings high-level competence about micro algae to the project. In the project, a new cultivation unit will be built and algae will use municipal waste water for growing. Harvesting, extraction and several analyses will also be done by SLU.

Contact: Francesco Gentili, francesco.gentili@slu.se

BioFuel Region
BioFuel Region was founded in 2003 by regional stakeholders and is a non-profit organization owned by its members. The mission is to enable the transition towards a fossil free transport sector, a bio economy based on biomass as well as lifelong learning. An important strategy is to collaborate with the public sector, the business community and research and development.

BioFuel Region in TransAlgaeBioFuel Region act as the administrative project leader and work with project coordinating and communication in TransAlgae.

Contact: Ida Norberg, ida.norberg@biofuelregion.se

Nattviken investNattviken Invest (also called Algkraft) is a company with Hugo Wikström as a founder situated in Härnösand. Nattviken Invest has during four years, designed and developed energy- and cost-efficient algae cultivation systems designed for the Nordic climate and its weather fluctuations.

Nattviken in TransAlgaeAt Nattviken, micro algae will be cultivated by using a cascade principle where the water and algae suspension are round-pumped and pour out over a slightly sloped area. This unit will be built and optimized during the project. Hugo Wikström has several years of experience as an entrepreneur of developing cheap and simple methods for cultivation of micro algae in a Nordic climate.

Contact: Hugo Wikström, hugo@nattviken.com

Mid Sweden UniversityMid Sweden University has two campuses in Sundsvall and Östersund. Research at Mid Sweden University keeps developing positively. It shows when you look at the international standard of more and more of our research environments, the increasing share of external funding and the fact that we take up more and more space as a partner in different innovation environments. Active work within our research profile areas is natural to us – Forest as a resource, Industrial IT, Health, Sports science and Sports technology, and Tourism and adventure. In addition, research activities in other areas are developing in a positive way.

MIUN in TransAlgae
Mid Sweden University’s role in the TransAlgae project is to look at the possibilities of transforming both micro and macro algae to bio oil by using hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). A high temperature and pressure turns the algae biomass into a bio oil that can be further processed into biodiesel. MIUN has long experience within the gasification research area and has also done some experiments with HTL. MIUN will also do a system analysis of the whole system together with UVA and Novia.

Contact: Wennan Zhang, wennan.zhang@miun.se

NoviaNovia University of Applied Sciences acts along the Swedish-speaking parts of the Finnish coastline. With over 4000 students and a staff of about 300, Novia is the largest Swedish-speaking university of applied sciences in Finland. High-class and state-of-the-art degree programs provide students with a proper platform for their future careers. Novia University of Applied Sciences offers master and bachelor degree studies in English and Swedish as well as adult education and specialization studies

The research and development areas within Novia University of Applied Sciences are: Sustainable Energy Technology, Bioeconomy, Health and Living Conditions of Older Adults, Maritime Simulation, and Culture and Entrepreneurship.

Novia in TransAlgaeIn TransAlgae, Novia is responsible for finding out the biogas potential of the algae. Novia has long experience in research regarding biogas. How to increase the biogas potential of the algae through co-digestion of regionally available substrates and different pretreatment methods will be investigated. The most interesting samples will later be digested in pilot scale reactors. Novia will also do energy calculations for the whole system together with Miun and UVA.

Contact: Andreas Willfors, andreas.willfors@novia.fi

University of VaasaThe University of Vaasa educates responsible leaders and experts for the needs of the future. The education and research that the University provides is wide ranging, spanning from business studies, administration, and technology, to communication. Our research is relevant to our time and we produce scientific knowledge of high international quality. The strength of our university is the community spirit, which promotes multidisciplinary studies and research. The campus is located on the western coast of Finland, and offers a modern study environment for 5000 students on the shore of the beautiful archipelago.

In our research, we focus particularly on the strategic areas we have chosen; finance, management and energy.

For educating doctoral students, the university has a Graduate School. Research is done according to contemporary standards in research groups which are often international and multidisciplinary.

UVA in TransAlgaeUVA will work with both cultivation and harvesting of micro algae on a laboratory scale as well as participate in a techno-economic analysis of the whole system. Research on algae is a large area with high competence in UVA, and there are a lot of laboratory facilities.

Contact: Carolin Nuortila, carolin.nuortila@uwasa.fi

NIBIONIBIO is a national centre for the development of knowledge within the field of bioeconomy. The basis of bioeconomy is the utilisation and management of marine and terrestrial biological resources, rather than a fossil economy based on coal, oil and gas.

The goal of the Institute is to contribute to food security, sustainable resource management, innovation and value creation through research and knowledge production within food, forestry and other biobased industries. NIBIO delivers research, managerial support and knowledge for use in national preparedness, as well as for businesses and the society at large. Approximately 700 employees are present in all parts of the country. The main office is located at Ås in Akershus, just outside Oslo.

NIBIO is owned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food as an administrative agency with special authorization and its own supervisory board.

NIBIO in TransAlgaeNIBIO is the project partner responsible for macroalgae (= seaweed) cultivation, harvesting and providing wild biomass for partners (e.g. Novia and Miun) responsible for marine biomass bio-transformation. At NIBIO, we do small-scale (flask) cultivation to optimize environmental parameters for growth and desired biochemistry and subsequent upscaling to medium scale (70 to 500 L) tank cultivation of e,g., the green seaweed Ulva spp. NIBIO has expertise and competence in different aspects of basic and applied algal research based in Bodø, Nordland.